Part two is all about you as a channel moderator, and what to look out for and the tools at your disposal. So you can be the best moderator you can be. Lets go!

Tips for Being A Good Moderator

I’m currently moderator for several different channels. Each streamer have their own set of expectations, so take time to get to know they are. As it’s their channel, they are responsible for what appears in the chat – most streamers like to keep the chat clean – visually clean and clear of profanity and inappropriate questions and comments. Moderators should keep a look-out for these. Later we’ll look at what tools YouTube provide to deal with this. How does the streamer feel about excessive emojis? What about ALL CAPS? Repetitive, repeated posts. Be clear in your mind what those exceptions are.

Whilst in the live chat, be helpful! If people have questions about what is going on, something the streamer said, etc. try to answer questions. The busier the chat, the less likely the streamer will see the question immediately. Always try to jump in and be helpful!

Sometimes you have to address someone in chat directly regarding behaviour. Always be polite, but firm. Note that in most cases, you should just apply one of the moderation actions, and should not need to address a viewer in most cases.

Give feedback to the streamer. After the stream, make sure to communicate any necessary information to the streamer. How much you share is going to depend on the streamer and what feedback they might be looking for.

Using the YouTube Tools Provided for Moderation

• Remove comment – this only removes the actual comment with no penalty to the chatter.
• Time-Out – this removes the message and other recent messages and gives a “time-out” for 300 seconds ie, 5 minutes. During that time, the chatter is unable to make any chat messages. Once the time-out is over, the chatter can resume commenting.
• Hide (Ban) – this actually “bans” the chatter from the channel completely. They are then no longer able to comment in chat or leave comments on future videos. Only the streamer can “unban” the banned person after the fact, but there is a small window to “undo” the ban if done in error.
• Any message that is automatically hidden for review by the youtube filters can also be moderated using the same options, and additionally if deemed OK, can be “approved” and shown to the live chat by a moderator.
• In addition, moderators are allowed to post links in chat, whilst in many cases, regular viewers cannot (depending on the streamer’s filter settings). 

Question for you – are you a moderator for a live streamer or are you a streamer yourself? Do you have any tips or advice for moderators? If so, make sure to leave a comment below and share it with the community!